Change of pay date.

Yes, a company can make operational changes when it needs to.

Otherwise no company could ever do anything without first asking every single employee if they were ok with it, which clearly isn't the case.

That generally relates to individual terms and conditions, we are talking here about company wide policies.

I'll quote a paragraph here from a standard employees handbook that goes with our employment contracts, just as an example:

"Given the nature of the ever-changing market environment within which the company operates, and the likelihood of changes to employment legislation and practices, alterations to company policies may occur which could affect terms and conditions of employment. The company, therefore, reserves the right to alter or modify terms and conditions. Such changes will, at all times, be covered by employment law and, following consultation, will be notified to employees within legal requirements."

Each company has its own version but generally its pretty standard and you will note that nowhere does it say the employees consent is needed. I would be very surprised if your own company handbook does not have a similar clause.

An operational change isn’t the same as a contract change though....

i was in a situation where we were asked by the MD about changing a pay date, the contract said we were to be paid on the 14th of each month unless the 14th was a Saturday or Sunday or BH Monday... when in that case we’d get paid the previous Friday ... the employer asked for a vote to make it the 18th or 19th I forget exactly , it was rejected... mainly because lots of us had the likes of direct debits and stuff set up that meant they would have required to go to a degree of effort and they didn’t fancy it... the original pay date remained.

I can never understand people with issues on this, you are still on the same salary, just leave the rent money in the bank instead of spending it. Perhaps set up a different account that the rent money is fed from so its untouched.

A bit of lateral thinking on the tenant/employee’s part should mean money for rent is in account. Commencement of tenancies are rarely timed to coincide precisely with pay dates.

Or, just budget to pay rent. Neither wage has gone down, nor rent up, if the op needs an overdraft it is because they spent more of their wage than before the wage payment date was changed.

I really don’t see why you think an overdraft is needed, are you saying the employee lacks the capacity to set aside money for rent?

"I'm just looking for some advice on this, everyone in my job received an email to inform us that our pay day was being changed, from the 5th working day of the month to the 6th working day of every month"

Are you being paid for the previous month of the month that has just started?

That handbook extract is saying any such changes will be covered by employment legislation so employees wouldn't need to consent to those - they are changes to the law and apply to everyone. It's not like the OP's pay date has developed through custom and practice, it is specified in their contract.

It is only one working day, but that could mean workers are not paid until the 8th, 9th or 10th of the following month. AFAIK that would need to be agreed between the employee and the company, otherwise what's to stop the company coming along next month and pushing the pay date out to the 15th working day or even the last working day of the next month.

Say the reason was to allow extra time for payroll processing, then why would the company not get agreement and issue an amendment to contracts rather than trying to bulldoze it through. Employees are reasonable.